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Living life with a country twist!

So now that Baby Bumpkin is 14 months old, and all traces of his birthday party are now absent from our home…….oh wait, I still have a bunch of party decor kicking around… Ok! So now that he is 14 months old and I can’t officially let go of the fact that his first year of life, and his birthday party are over, I thought I’d piece it together into a blog post to share the details of the ridiculously elaborate party I threw for my 1 yr old!

We chose the theme for his party around Halloween. He was dressed as a British Footguard, and we (I) ran with the idea from there. I originally planned on hosting High Tea, but when I started reading up on how to exactly pull this off without sacrificing authenticity, and decided we would just call it a “tea party” and go from there. I think it all came off perfectly!

I hand made his invitations, and used the “Keep Calm” font I downloaded for all the text. I simply used scrapbook cardstock and a little ink to distress the edges. I knew hosting a tea party for my son, wouldn’t be a popular choice, so I tried to make a few details a little more masculine. These guys were heavy, but luckily Canada Post shipped them at no extra cost! They seemed to be a big hit, I heard my Mother in Law took hers to work to show off! I’m very happy with how they turned out, and really wasn’t much more than gluing some strips of paper onto the card!

I wanted to craft as much of the decor and prepare as much of the food as possible myself. Hubby Bumpkin more than once referred to me as “That mom”, he meant it in a positive light, but in hindsight, “That Mom” wasn’t a very friendly person the week leading up to this party. I bit off way more than I could chew, spending nearly every night in a row awake until 4 am crafting my little heart out. This has lead me to choose either less detailed parties in the future, or, starting well in advance! This banner became my pride and joy! I cut out each triangle, each strip of paper, and glued it all together to make the union jack design! I used the Cricut to help with the letters and then took 3 attempts to string it all properly so the words weren’t backwards! (I cried a lot over this banner!) It is currently still hanging in my kitchen. I will eventually take it down, and I’ll probably cry again then. I am thrilled with the punch it added to his party, but it took so much work!

This is my first and last time attempting fondant that doesn’t come premade out of a package! The cake was saved by the stunning cake topper that I won as part of a local home business’ giveaway! The vanilla cake tasted delicious, but it wasn’t exactly the prettiest thing to look at! Next time I decided to use fondant icing, I will be taking my butt straight to Michael’s and buying the package of Wilton without hesitation!

I also made mini chocolate cupcakes! This was Arthur’s first real dessert and I wasn’t comfortable with feeding him a whole slice of cake, so this was our compromise. I bought the little flags on Amazon!

This poster, along with the back drops for our “photo booth” and the Royal Family masks were all borrowed from a friend who had a British themed Social the weekend before his party. (Socials are incredibly common wedding fundraisers here… we like to think it’s not tacky because everybody and their dog has them!) We were so lucky to have planned this party just after they had their social!

What is a birthday party without streamers? Well, not a very fun birthday party if you ask me…. ok. Actually I’m kidding, I don’t care much for or about streamers, but I did buy some in the Union Jack’s colours incase we wanted to throw them up last minute. As I was going to bed the night before the party, my brother (who is 6’9″) offered to put them up for me! When I came out in the morning, THIS is what awaited me! He made the union jack on the ceiling, out of streamers. I was floored!

I took monthly photos of Arthur in the same spot in his room, and used the first 11 months to display at his party. I again, used the Cricut to make the frames from cardstock!

I also included a wall of photos of Queen Elizabeth II. I cut these out of a magazine.

Where’s Baby Bumpkin?

As for the food and drinks, we served tea of course! As well as Iced Tea. I used old Starbucks frap glasses and cut a hole in the lids for the paper straws!

We served a buffet of tea biscuits and scones with craisins. Mini cupcakes, sandwiches, and many more treats almost all made from scratch by me!

I worked very hard on these cookies. Luckily I did make them roughly a week in advanceand froze them! It made prepping everything else a touch less overwhelming!

This was something I saw on Pinterest. I thought it was really funny, and although I’m not a fan of goldfish crackers nutritionally, making my own wasn’t possible due to lack of time and or real dedication to this project! This was about the only part of the party that involved opening 2 bags, dumping the contents in a bowl and calling it genius…. I will strive for more of this in future years!

Over all this was a wonderful party and I am so happy with how everything turned out! I’ve set the bar incredibly high for future years, but the party planner in me couldn’t be happier! Arthur was spoiled with gifts and we are so lucky to be surrounded with love and support all the time!

WE MADE IT!!!!!!!! My itty bitty Shrimp turned one! The most epic year of my life has come to a close, but a new and exciting chapter is just about to start! Arthur has started the amazing transformation from infant to toddler, and is enjoying the process immensely (so are we!)!!!

Eating

1 year milestone of breastfeeding and we are still going strong! I am so proud of us for making it this far! I really felt that even if things were so tough, I would try my absolute hardest to breastfeed until 1 year, and luckily everything went so smoothly, so we have no plans of giving it up anytime soon!

In addition, Arthur now has no restrictions on the foods he can eat (Honey was the only food we delayed due to the risk of botulism), but has shown preference to foods like breads, and fruit, carrots while obviously disliking green veggies like broccoli and brussel sprouts!

Weight

I weighed Arthur a week prior to his birthday. Fully dressed, in a possibly wet diaper he weighed in at a grand total of 20lbs on the nose!!! Little man is…..well, little! The weight doesn’t really mean much right now, he’s never used an infant car seat, but it is interesting to me, to know that he would technically still fit in one by weight. He also just had a massive height growth spurt, so he’s looking a whole lot skinnier than before!

Sleep

Arthur’s sleep has been slowly but surely improving! He sleeps usually one 4 hour stretch followed by a 5 or 6 hour stretch and has at least one 2 hour nap per day, sometimes two! Over all it was a rough year in the sleep department, but when it’s all done, he has improved so much and I am happy to say we never had to resort to any form of CIO, although I would never judge another parent for doing what works for their family. Sleep deprivation can do brutal things to you, but I want to give hope to other families going through this! There is light at the end of the tunnel!

Milestones

Arthur still only has 4 teeth.

He’s standing on his own more and more, moving from sitting to standing on his own without using anything to pull up!

He officially says “dada” with the intention of getting Hubby Bumpkin’s attention, or clearly wondering where he is!

Baby Bumpkin mimics sounds and signs for more and all done!

Babywearing

Babywearing has come back into our lives quite a bit! Arthur likes to be held and we do a lot of running around the yard. He isn’t crazy about grass, so I just toss him in my ring sling while hanging laundry on the line and he’s a happy camper. The ring sling and boba are getting the most love lately, and I don’t know how I’d ever survive without them both!

Diapers

Cloth diapering is still going well. Although the struggles with sores on his bum have not gone away! We are continuing to try all kinds of natural remedies, it seems that sun and air have been helping the most! He is on the road to recovery there! What I take away from all this is that cloth or disposable wouldn’t have made much difference!

As well the stink issues we have are still kicking around, but I’ve found adding some vinegar to the rinse cycle every so often (beware this can damage elastics) has helped! I think 1 more good strip of the diapers would help, but I just haven’t gotten to that yet!

The final month of Arthur’s infancy went rather smoothly! No major bumps or hiccups! He has become such an independent little person, moving from toy to toy, room to room exploring and learning through touch and sound. Experimenting with putting objects in and taking them out of various containers (emptying my cupboards is a favourite activity as of late!

Thank you so much to anyone who’s kept up to date with the goings on around here! I am so grateful to have an online community that has supported us through Baby Bumpkin’s first year on Earth!

Only one more month until the big first birthday! This month has been a real blast seeing Arthur grow and develop into his very own “big kid” personality! He is quickly changing from all baby to a toddler right in front of my eyes! I’m equally torn between excitement and heartbreak! I am starting to see the start of my favourite stage of child development and it makes me absolutely giddy, but knowing the end of an important chapter is near does bring on some very mixed emotions!

Eating

Wowza, this boy has developed an appetite! He must have hit a month long growth spurt, because this boy can hardly be satisfied! He has been eating 3 meals a day for a while now, but lately some fruit and cheese for example won’t cut it for breakfast or lunch, this boy needs MORE! Along with eating more quantity in food, Baby Bumpkin has been trying some new flavours that aren’t the norm in our house! I am not an adventurous cook, but after sampling some of my mom’s shrimp and coconut milk curry I knew I wanted to test out the recipe. It was delicious, and our whole family gobbled it up! I was a little surprised at how well Arthur handled the heat! It had me gulping down water, and he just casually took some sips here and there.

On that note, I finally broke down and gave Arthur a sippy cup. I had been avoiding it, hoping he’d take to a real cup, or other similar drinking container, but it just never happened. My parents came for a visit and gave Baby Bumpkin a stainless steel sippy cup with several differing lids (bottle, sippy, straw, and water bottle). He really has that down pat, so I think we’ll just go with it. As much as I was hoping to just skip that step.

He is still nursing on demand, and I have no plans to give that up in the next month!

Weight

Along with his appetite his weight has gone up as well! I used our scale at home to weigh him, and it made me very nervous to see that he hadn’t gained a pound since our last weigh in. BUT thankfully when I had the chance to weigh him on an infant scale, (fully dressed in a diaper) he came in at 19lbs 10 oz! More than a lb heavier than the scale at home said (phew!) He is also noticeably taller, so that may play into the slow weight gain as well! Over all I’m happy with this. My little guy at 11 months old still fits in an infant car seat if we had one, or in his car seat without the added headrest, which limits space! I sure love that boy!

It’s a good thing he doesn’t weigh too much! He’s so busy helping!

Sleep

Long exhale of relief! He has been making such HUGE improvements! I am thrilled to say Arthur had his first ever 10 hour stretch of sleep! It was AMAZING! After a very rough 10th month of sleep, my parents came to visit and my mom offered to wake through the night with Baby Bumpkin so I could rest! That felt so wonderful! AND Arthur only woke up once! Most nights this month he has only woken 1-2 times after I’ve gone to bed, making 4-6 hour stretches of sleep a regular occurrence again!

We had a bit of a sleep regression while visiting my MIL, but since returning home, each night is an improvement on the last!

Milestones

Arthur has just generally gotten “older” this month.

He just recently started waving to say hello or goodbye.

He plays peekaboo by pulling a towel, shirt, or blanket over his face and pulling it down quickly. And he also tries to cover his face with both hands and then moving them.

Playing the same game it really looks like he is blowing kisses with both hands when he misses his eyes. We try to show him how to blow kisses when he does this in hopes it will become intentional!

Baby Bumpkin is “floating” before falling on his bum from a standing position. He’ll float for a few seconds before sitting down when he lets go of whatever object he was using to keep his balance while standing. Several times we’ve caught him standing unassisted for close to 30 seconds when he wasn’t paying attention!

Babywearing

Boba carrier for the win this month! I’ve been using it again, as Arthur becomes even more mobile, it’s so handy to toss him on my back while I run down to throw in a load of laundry, or at the grocery store when I’m in a hurry and he’s sleepy! We also used it to keep him nearby when shoveling the driveway, and he enjoyed some snowshoeing with his daddy!

We’ve also gone on walks with friends now that the weather is warming up, and we really don’t have a decent stroller to take (or the space to put it if we did have one) so the boba has been excellent then too!

The ring sling got some loving this month too, but for the most part that was just for some extra cuddles and boobie milk, it’s much easier to nurse in than the Boba I find!

Diapers

For the second and third and forth time since Baby Bumpkin was 1 month old he wore a *GASP* disposable diaper! For the record I have nothing against using disposables, we just much prefer everything about cloth! Arthur has been battling some pretty serious rashes this month, and while I’ve resorted to using some zinc cream and flushable liners on his cloth, I wanted to see if using a disposable diaper might clear it up quicker. I loaded up the zinc cream, and put him down for the night in a “sposie”. I tried this a few times and honestly it made no difference. I’m just glad I have friends to lend me the diapers so I wasn’t out the cost of a whole pack! (those suckers are needlessly expensive!)

We are continuing to combat this rash (it went away briefly, and is now back again), with baking soda baths, bare bum time, coconut oil and lavender E.O. and zinc cream with liners! Any other tips?

Part of the problem I think is that we’ve had lots of acidic foods lately, and perhaps if we limit the tomatoes, it could help clear him up! Honestly I just hope that he clears up soon! It sure can’t be comfortable!

Well that’s it for this month, I’ve had such a wonderful time. He has been such a ham for photos making some silly faces and great big smiles! I’m really looking forward, again, to all that this month coming up has in store, including Arthur’s 1st birthday party! I’m excited to share with you the details on party planning, and how everything with that turns out!

A day normally reserved for your biggest and best practical joke, this year Mother Nature, went all out!

What this photo doesn’t show you… the day before, the deck had been completely bare, and the windows were all open! The path shown is also much deeper than it appears! To my knees to be exact!

The night before Hubby Bumpkin worked an evening shift (home at midnight). The highways were closed and he was supposed to sleep at work. He’d need to drive about 2km on the closed road to get to our driveway. With no other traffic, and a tow truck escort, he decided to risk it, and made it home about 30 minutes late.

Now by “made it home” I really mean, he made it to the end of our driveway. Pulled the truck in as far as he could and then waded through the deep snow to the house!

Unfortunately to get the truck out of the way of the snow plows that would eventually be out clearing the highway, he got Chevy stuck in the deep deep snow!

We’ve had a lengthy battle all winter long with Sears in regards to a snowblower that does not work, and therefore our only option to clear the driveway was by hand! With a deadline to get to work for this evening’s shift, we decided to make it a family affair!

Adding an extra 20lbs of weight to your back, sure adds to the work out!

The worst part…. it was dead weight!

We shovelled roughly 60 feet of driveway, and Hubby Bumpkin managed to back his truck over some wooden blocks to free it!

The worst part was the last 10-15 feet, where the snow plows left packed windrows that needed to be broken apart, before being dug out! I’m so grateful that the temps stayed cold enough that it was mostly light fluffy snow that we had to move!

Hubby Bumpkin showing off our hard work! The snow here isn’t even as high as it is in some parts of our yard! It had all been melting rapidly the day before, and this was just incredible. I think they said we officially got between 12-24 inches of snow, but with drifting, there were places that whole buildings were covered!

Looks like this might be some alternative transportation for the next few days! My car is stuck in place until we either find someone with time to plow the remaining 150 meters of our driveway, or it melts!

Whoa baby! We’ve hit the double digits! Only 2 months out from the big first birthday and I can’t believe how big my baby seems! I have to keep reminding myself to focus on and enjoy the present because I keep getting so excited about what the future holds!

Eating

Arthur has been exploring more with different tastes and textures of foods this month. He really is happy with anything we put in front of him! I notice that his appetite varies day to day, but the times that it seems really low, and I consider worrying about it, he perks right back up to normal the next day!

He continues to be nursed on demand. I have noticed a recent drop in my supply, but wonder if I’m just noticing normal fluctuation based on my cycle. He seems satisfied, but goes quite a long time between feeds some days and that worries me a little. I’m trying to continue trusting my body will always have enough to meet his needs, and really so far, it hasn’t let me down!

Weight

You know I never got the chance to stick him on a scale this month. I imagine he’s gained, but not substantially. He’s just a slow and steady grower! Of course if I get the opportunity to weigh him I will update here! I’m feeling surprisingly at ease with not knowing his numbers this month!

Sleep

harblegarblewhompomppomp! <— That is just about the most coherent phrase I am managing to get out lately. Day light savings seems to have tossed us for a HUGE loop this season! We lost an hour, so it might make sense that his sleep shift time by an hour, or he sleep 1 hour more or less than his normal… right?!?! WRONG! This kid, although wonderful the actual day after daylight savings, has hit a regression of epic proportions! Awake every 30-45 minutes some nights! He has a really really hard time falling asleep in his crib, no matter what I try doing, but if I bring him into our bed, he doesn’t sleep. He wakes up completely and tries lunging over our bodies to reach all the great stuff on our nightstands that he can’t have! Ever see that vine trend “whaling”? Imagine a 10 month old doing that in bed from about 2am until you finally give up around 6 and take him out to the living room! I’m beat. Hubby Bumpkin is beat. This child has beat us! Nothing to do now, but give in to his little terrorist demands and party hardy all night long! (for the record, I don’t actually think my child is terrorizing us on purpose, he’s not malicious, but I’ll try to think of nicer words when I’ve had more than an hours sleep in a row in a month!)

Milestones

We’ve now got 2 teeth on the bottom, one totally through on the top and one more making it’s way in right beside it! That third tooth seemed to sneak right in with hardly any pain, but #4 is a killer!

Arthur is now clapping his hands on demand (he’s been clapping since around 7-8 months, but only recently when we ask him to)

He is pulling up on anything and everything, more and more on my legs when I’m standing in the kitchen. He can motor around on his hands and knees, and lately has loved the push toy dino that was handed down from my nephew! He walks behind it back and forth across our livingroom!

Arthur has come down the step into the living room, by himself, by turning around first. We have been helping him for a while now, turning him and pulling gently to coax him down. He has only recently been doing it on his own, but still prefers our help if he knows we’re near by!

Baby Bumpkin also is repeating sounds more clearly than before! He is quite chatty and loves to talk!

He also has been pushing and moving toys with wheels (like a little train or tractor) around the room while he plays! It’s so cool to see him understanding what motions those objects can make, and then play with them appropriately!

Babywearing

Well I have officially given up on the wrap carries for the time being. Instead, we are using my woven wrap as a hammock under our dining room table! Arthur loves “relaxing” in it and it has been a lot of fun to use it in this positive way!

I have been using our Boba 3g a lot more lately too! I will often toss Arthur on my back when I need to go down to the basement to switch over laundry or am in the middle of cooking dinner and he just won’t get out from under my feet! It has been really handy too on the days that I’m doubly busy with “Miss B” (the 12 month old girl I care for 2 days a week, temporally).

Diapers

I did an RLR strip on our pocket diapers, and honestly it only improved the stink issues a little bit. Due to sleep issues this month, I just don’t have the energy to figure it all out, and the smell isn’t bothering me near bad enough to do more about it at this time. As long as he is changed frequently, it never gets that bad. We’ve still kept him 100% in cloth, and I feel lucky that over all, it’s still really working out for us!

A friend of Hubby Bumpkin, was staying with us a week ago. He and his wife are starting to plan their family and he is really interested in using cloth diapers, but she is not. (talk about some good promotion from Hubby Bumpkin!) The issue for his wife, is that she thinks it’s gross. This got me thinking, I don’t find using cloth diapers particularly gross, but then again, I’ve only ever used them on my own child. Maybe there is something to the idea that your own baby’s poop isn’t as disgusting as someone else’s. I won’t say that there hasn’t been a time that I considered just tossing the whole diaper in the trash rather than having to deal with washing it, but that has been an isolated event, and I’m not convinced that using disposables in that instance would have been much better! In the end, cloth might not be for everyone, but I’m sure glad that I have had success with it!

With the exception of sleep this month has been really great. Baby Bumpkin has let his little personality shine through and it warms my heart to see how happy he really can be! He is thrilled with just the tiniest things!

Hubby Bumpkin and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary this week with a trip to the Big City with Baby Bumpkin, dinner out alone and a quick (childless) trip to the thrift store!

On Monday afternoon, we packed up, and headed in to stay at my Mother in Law’s for the night! She had agreed to watch Arthur for us, so we could spend some alone time together on our anniversary! Our plans were to simply head out for dinner, but on our way out of the restaurant parking lot we decided that since we missed putting Baby Bumpkin down for bed anyways, we should seize this opportunity to run an errand planned for the next day when we wouldn’t have free childcare!

Here is our haul!:

I have been making a list with plans to slowly gather supplies over the next few months for Arthur’s first birthday party! Having settled on a Union Jack themed “High Tea” party the thrift store was surely going to be my best bet for some dishes and serving platters! I also wanted to start gathering pieces to build Baby Bumpkin’s summer wardrobe, as this is the first time we will really need to fill in some gaps!

Hubby Bumpkin found these tea cups and saucers along with small plates for $15.99. One cup was missing, so they knocked another 10% off! My original plan was to buy mis-matched cups and possibly paint them, but this was actually cheaper, came with the saucers and plates, and requires no modification! Hubby for the win!

In keeping with the tea party theme, I saw this set and thought it was absolutely gorgeous! At $24.99, it cost more than I wanted to spend on “party decor” but Hubby Bumpkin again encouraged this purchase by reminding me, that we could always use it at other times too. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there is something I really love about this set! *If anyone has suggestions for the best way to clean this baby up, please comment below and help me out!

Lastly for his party, I picked up this cake stand with lid and tiered tray for $10 and $5, I am considering spray painting the whole tray. What do you think?

“Well that sounds like a great opportunity for you, but poor Hubby Bumpkin, he must hate thrift shopping!” you may be thinking. Not true! Not only does my man appreciate a good deal! (I love him for that!) He also is an avid reader and picks up a handful of books any time we go to the store! These were between $2-$3 each.

One thing I am constantly keeping an eye out for is books for Arthur! Most of you know that we already have a pretty extensive library for him, but the one area I will never feel the need to de clutter is our books! I just don’t think you can have too many! Next Christmas I plan to start a book advent calendar, instead of the typical chocolate, so I’ve been collecting holiday themed books early and am already half way to what I need! I picked up 3 more and a Winnie the Pooh book for Baby Bumpkin. Just one more thing to represent the bear so closely related to his daddy’s unit! The books were between $1-$3 and for every 3 books you buy, the 4th is free!

I was wanting a few items for a project I saw on Pinterest! Basically I wanted to pick up some vases to spray paint and use for decor in our living room! I, of course will blog that project, but for now, here is the starting product, for $3 or $4 each.

As many of you know I’m a Child Restraint Systems Technician (Car Seat Tech). It pains me every time I go to a store and see unsafe, after market products for sale. I just don’t have the budget, or space to store every single item I’d like to make inaccessible for the general public to buy, but when I find something I don’t own yet, that I could use in safety demonstrations, I like to pick it up! Earlier that evening, I picked up a “bundle me” (bunting bag) that a mom was willing to give me for free as an example of unsafe products seen with car seats. I was pretty excited to also find a head hugger for $2 at the thrift store, to add to my collection!

Finally, I picked up a couple of items to help build Arthur’s summer and next fall wardrobe! This will be the first season that we will have to fill in a few gaps in his closet, and I was happy to get some good finds at lower prices!

The Sleep Sack he can use now, and probably will last through most of the summer, the sweater in front is handmade and will be perfect for next fall/winter. I’m thinking of adding some brown patches to the elbows. The sun suit/bathing suit was a good find and will last him until the end of the summer! The shorts and buttoned shirt were just too cute to pass up, and the long sleeved onesie is from Joe and looks barely worn! In total the clothes cost $19.

The grand total from our shopping extravaganza (45 min in total at the store) set us back $112!!! I really think for what we walked away with we did pretty good! As well we signed up for the stores “stamp” program and already have 1 card filled, which is worth 30% off our next purchase!

Hope you enjoyed this haul blog! Leave a comment and let me know what you think was the best bang for my buck in this haul!

My sweet baby boy has had a bit of a rough time recently, but now that he’s been “earthside” for as long as he was growing in my belly I can’t talk enough about all the big changes he’s made this month!

Eating

9 months and still nursing! Arthur continues to be breastfed on demand, and is really excelling at baby led weaning when it comes to eating solid foods. I think it’s safe to say that banana is on top of his favourite foods list. He can easily scarf down up to 2 bananas in a sitting, but usually I try to limit him to 1. He also likes to snack on dry “whole Os” cereal. Otherwise he eats whatever meal we are eating. Anything from stir fry to roasted chicken and veggies. He loves to participate in family meals times together at the table. He does still occasionally gag on the food, but corrects the positioning in his mouth with no assistance at all! He eats anything we do, but of course I try to only share the healthy foods.

Lately I’ve felt a really big aversion to food marketed to infants and toddlers. Arthur has only ever had “real food” with the exception of the cereal, which is as healthier than the traditional GMO based cereal brand. But I can’t help but feel irritated by the packaged foods we walk past on the shelves, full of salt and preservatives, nasty chemicals and GMOs (not to say some of our regular diet doesn’t already contain these things) all with pictures of smiling children, colourful shapes or licensed characters that I know I will come to despise when baby bumpkin learns to recognize them. I feel so strongly about giving Baby Bumpkin the best start in life, and I feel the pressure from these companies to allow my baby to “enjoy” their products. It obviously isn’t an issue now, but it causes me to dread the battles in a few years time when he starts requesting these foods, and noticing that his friends are eating. I’m not sure how to handle these things especially given the state of the diet Hubby Bumpkin and I currently eat. We are slowly working on changing our diet for the better as a family, and I feel we have no better reason than for Arthur’s sake!

The conversation has also come up in our home about whether or not we will introduce cows milk as a beverage for Arthur to drink after 1 year. I know we still have some time to decide. I do not drink milk, but we cook a lot with dairy and eat a variety of other milk products. I’ve been doing a little bit of research on both sides of this matter, and would love to hear if you have experience transitioning to almond or coconut milk. Also any studies related to this topic specifically to do with CANADIAN dairy would be much appreciated as anything I’ve found has been American based, and our milk is quite different from theirs.

Weight

I haven’t weighed Arthur at all this month, Like last time I will have him weighed this week and come back to update with those numbers soon! I have not worried one bit about his weight this month, I’m learning to just trust that he is healthy just the way he is!

Sleep

Well, lets start with the good. Arthur had his longest ever stretch of sleep this month! He slept for 8 consecutive hours!!!!! It was so wonderful. Unfortunately he had been very very ill that whole day, and his stressed out mama woke up several times, concerned that he was sleeping so long. So while I didn’t get much rest, I think it’s a good sign that Baby Bumpkin is capable of this kind of long stretch of sleep!

Over all, His sleep is generally improving. He is fairly easy to put down at night, and stays asleep for one or two 2-3 hour stretches before I go to bed! Through the night he can be up anywhere from 2-4 times, and has been spending the whole night in his crib!

All this was before this past week. Being sick, and possibly some teething may contribute to an all out boycott to normal sleep patterns. He has been refusing to nap, maybe getting in one 40 min. snooze during the whole day, and then fights going to sleep. He wakes up frequently and has had a few nights of being wide awake and very cranky for 1-3 hours. It’s been a rough week, but I’m hoping that he will get through this phase quickly and we can go back to the progress we’ve been seeing!

Milestones

Although not technically a milestone that Drs are looking for, Arthur is now an official crawler! It all started one fateful morning when I brought him out to our (unheated) living room, wearing nothing but a diaper. The laminate flooring was still cold and the little naked seal pup (as he closely resembled in the early stages of his mobility) quickly figured out how to lift his torso off the floor and crawl on his knees. Which quickly morphed into a wobbly downward dog pose! Since then he has quickly mastered moving around by crawling.

After a good 8 and a half months, Baby Bumpkin has some teeth! His bottom 2 teeth came in just a day or two from each other leading to one cranky little boy! But they are here! And yup, they are SHARP! He has bitten me while nursing a small handful of times, and boy did that sting! But as long as I’m more careful about making sure he has a good latch, things are great! He must be working on some top teeth because he is just as cranky and wants to chew on stuff all the time!

Pulling up & cruising! Arthur easily pulls himself up on the toy shelf, the couch, the coffee table, the kitchen chairs, the stools at the island, his toys, his crib, my leg, the dishwasher, the bath tub (ugh. this is much less fun now)… you get the idea. He has developed much better balance and although I don’t think he’ll be a particularly early walker, he’s happy as a clam to have this new found “heightened” mobility!

First stomach bug! Not a milestone I was looking forward to, or one I’d care to revisit any time soon, but Arthur woke up one morning (in our bed..hehehe, lucky for me….) by throwing up at 6am, and proceeded to spend the next 8 hours repeating this every 10-30 minutes. I was worried about dehydration, but the nurse I talked to at Health Links was really helpful in giving me advice and reassurance that he was going to be fine. I’m not one of those parents that thinks it’s gross to vomit into a toilet. (I happen to really appreciate easy clean up when I am sick) but unfortunately predicting when your infant is about to be sick is damn near impossible! So we made do with every single towel we own being put to use that day! I even threw a load of towels through the wash to make sure we had enough! Poor Baby Bumpkin would get sick (into a towel I would hold up last second) and then immediately try to rest his face in it. He was tired and weak, and obviously felt incredibly unwell. It was a draining day physically and emotionally on his mama, but luckily, he recovered from that sickness as quickly as it came on!

Babywearing

This has been a month of very limited baby wearing. I tried a few more back carries with the wrap, but none got a good seat, and I found myself incredibly frustrated with it. Other than that, there was one day in the store, when Arthur didn’t want to sit in the cart, so I used our “emergency pouch sling” that I keep in my diaper bag, for a hip carry while I finished buying groceries. I think once the weather warms up a bit, and we spend more time out and about, in the city and summer street festivals we’ll go back to getting more use from the carriers!

Diapers

No real change here either. After his rash cleared up, we haven’t noticed any more problems with him wearing cloth diapers. The diapers still need to be stripped (remember a couple months ago, when I said this needed to happen… yeah… here we are) They are all still quite absorbent, but the smell is strong once they get wet! So that is my project for today actually!

Although this month has had it’s rough patches, I have to say, there are countless days and moments where I just sit back, and let all the warm fuzzies wash over me! I am so in love with this little human! He is the greatest gift I’ve ever been given and it is not lost on me that not everyone who wants this experience can have it. I feel so lucky and I never want to let that be taken for granted!